Death At Charity Point by Willam G Tapply

A Boston lawyer investigates a prep school teacher’s suspicious suicide

Brady Coyne never meant to become the private lawyer to New England’s upper crust, but after more than a decade working for Florence Gresham and her friends, he has developed a reputation for discretion that the rich cannot resist. He is fond of Mrs. Gresham, the unflappable, uncouth, and never tardy with a check, and he has seen her through her husband’s suicide and her first son’s death in Vietnam. But he has never seen her crack until the day her second son, George, leaps into the sea at jagged Charity’s Point. The authorities call it a suicide, but Mrs. Gresham cannot believe her son, like his father, would take his own life. As Brady digs into the apparently blemish-free past of this upper-class prep school history teacher, he finds dark secrets. George Gresham may not have been suicidal, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t in trouble.

Printing History

written by William G. Tapply (1940–2009)

Charles Scribner's Sons

 ISBN 684-18056 (March 1984)

Ballantine Books (February 1985)

ISBN 345-32014

MysteriousPress.com/Open Road (August 2013)
ISBN  1 480-42743-8

Target: Point Zero by Mack Maloney

He Is The Last Hope For Ravaged America!

Freedom Kill

It's been five years since the Big War incinerated America in nuclear fire, and anarchists dealt libery a final, savage blow. Now, out of the ashes of rebellion emerges an unstoppable military force of freedom fighters determined to re-civilize the U.S. In the forefront is fearless top-gun pilot, Hawk Hunter "The Wingman" waging a never-ending battle to keep the true spirit of America alive! but Hunter's greatest challenge is yet to come. Viktor Robotov, one of the world's most cunning master criminals, is piloting the Russian designed Zon space shuttle to amass derelict American "Star Wars" satellites to control the skies, including the Earth. But first he has to land.in a series of spectacular bombing raids, Hunter has obliterated every docking strip from Malta to Rangoon. The only one left is Lolita Island, a barren atoll off the coast of Southeast Asia. As Viktor's squadron approaches, escorted by a troop of battle ready Asian cult mercenaries, Hawk and his allies must call on every resource they possess to wrest the future of democracy from the clutches of vicious tyranny, in a swift and bloody battle to the death!

Wingman #12

Printing History

written by Brian Kelleher

copyright 1996

Kensington Publishing Corp

Pinnacle Books

ISBN 7860 299

August 1996

Hot Seat For A Honey by Carter Brown

 

Cover by David Franklin

 The zany millionaire who had hired Simeon Shoeman had his penthouse guarded as though it held more gold than Fort Knox. Well maybe Dolly and Mamie were very bit as valuable. And who'd want to share them with anyone, anyway. But Mr Shoeman's client didn't live long enough to enjoy their company, and he could not collect his fifty thousand dollars until he found out who'd put a knife in his throat. Sure, Dolly and Mamie told him all  they know, and it would have filled a book. Only Simeon was not writing one. He had a murder on his hands and someone had him lined up as a victim too........

Printing History

Written by Alan G Yates (1922-1985)

Transport Publishing Company

for and on behalf of Horwitz Publications, Inc

Novel Series #24
1956

as Penthouse Passout

 

Novel Series 

1953

Second Collector's Series Vol 1 #12
1958
w/Murder is A Broad

Introducing Murder in March Madness

All through March I will be highlighting a title with the word murder in it. March has thirty one days in and I have seventeen titles already lined up. 

The rules are simple enough. 

The title of the mystery has to have the word murder, or a variant, in the title.

Acceptable variants are murders, murdered, etc.

The mystery can be as old as Edgar Allen Poe's The Murders in the Rue Morgue.

Or a new as It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Murder by Jeff Markowitz.

Feel free to follow along or even contribute.

Code Name Cobra by Jack Canon

N3 In The Cross Hairs Of 

The World's Most Savage Assassin!

It began as a family squabble. But the family is one of India's richest and most powerful. Now, the fate of a nation hangs in the balance. A bloody revolution is just a heartbeat away as Agent N3 steps into a deadly billion dollar power play. But the first assassination, the game turns savage. From New Delhi to the teeming streets of Barcelona and down the dark corridors of the espionage underground lurks The Cobra, waiting for his chance to strike. The Cobra has killed many times and in many places. But to forever silence the legendary American agent, Nick Carter, would be the rarest of pleasures.......

Printing History

Written by Jack Canon

Berkley Publishing Group

Jove Books

Published by arrangement with The Conde Nast Publications, Inc.

ISBN 515 09706

September 1988

Trivia
This is George Gross' last cover.

Nemesis Wore Nylons by Carter Brown

A Carter Brown "Lovely" Mystery

Cover by Bernard Blackburn

 The cop was fall guy for a disappearing corpse and a beautiful blonde

Printing History

Written by Alan G Yates (1922-1985)

  

Transport Publishing Company

for and on behalf of Horwitz Publications, Inc
 

Novel Series

1954

Second Collectors' Series 

w/The Frame Is Beautiful

Volume 1 No 7

1957

Reprint by Demand Series

#29

1960

Rogue Queen by L Sprague de Camp

Cover by Richard Powers

 Worker Iroedh was confused. Though she was a lover of antiquity, she really could put no faith in the Oracle's prophecy. It was true that strange being, Terrans, had come from beyond the heavens. But these men were no gods. Had not she seen them making fools of themselves over a silly thing called love? Was this the action of gods? On the planet of a star, known to Terrans as Ormazd, the dominant humanoid species is organized into hive societies much like those of ants and bees. A hyper-fertile queen and a handful of male drones are responsible for their reproduction, while all other tasks are performed by a sterile female population of workers. This status quo is disrupted by an exploratory spacecraft from the Earth's space authority. It has a mixed crew of socially equal and universally fertile males and females. This opens up other possibilities to the natives.

 Printing History

Written by Lyon Sprague de Camp (1907-2000)

Hardcover 

Doubleday (1951)

The Eaton Press (1996)

Remploy (1974)

Paperback

Dell Books (1952)

Pinnacle Books (1954)

Ace Books (1965)

Signet Books (November 1972, June 1978)

Bluejay Books (June 1985)

E-Book

Victor Gollancz Ltd: SF Gateway (September 2011)
 Arc Manor: Phoenix Pick (January 2012)

A Dame Called Murder by Robert O Saber

Introducing Max Keene 

 He took his chances with.......

Max Keene awoke in the apartment of a redhead calypso singer, he got a jolt. She swore he'd come from another girl down the hall,  a very dead girl. Murdered by a sex maniac is what the cops say. With Max supposed to be the maniac. But he was smart as well as tough and soon found his way on the trail of the real murderer. A trail leading him straight into the middle of a shooting war. Good thing the redhead was still around. Perfect for bait to get the killer on the hook. And Max Keene off!

Printing History

Written by Milton K Ozaki (1913-1989)

Graphic Books

1955

MM-MMM-Minx! by K.T. McCall

When a guy goes overboard for this redhead he finds himself landed with murder......

The trouble with the Buchanans is that they are all gentlemen under the wolf pelt. So when a lady's dignity is outraged it's good ol' Johnny to the rescue. But his boss, Chet Fraser, thinks business should be combined with all the pleasures, so Johnny had to protect the insurance policy, in this case her millionaire father. One would think that's pleasure? Brother, try tracing a corpse that keeps right on communicating with the living. And see how one stood up to missing death at least three times an hour. Johnny had one compensation, his  own policewoman helpmate, named Sarah. Maybe it's an old fashioned name, but this lady looks were strictly on the up and up. Then father decided to taker a cruise, and from there on things got complicated. The lady was mislaid, but Johnny came to the rescue again, only this time not by choice! He found her, enjoying the wide open spaces underwater, they figured on Johnny joining her, with adhesive across his mouth and hands and feet tied, solidly weighted down. Till death do they part.......

Printing History

Written by Audrey Armitage and Muriel Watkins

Horwtiz Publications Inc.

Johnny Buchanan Series #15 (February 1958)

High Sierra (1941)

After being released from prison, notorious thief Roy Earle is hired by his old boss to help a group of inexperienced criminals plan and carry out the robbery of a California resort.......

An aged gangster Big Mac, played by Donald MacBride, is planning a robbery at a California resort in Palm Springs. He wants the experienced Roy Earle, played by Humphrey Bogart, to lead the heist and to take charge of the operation.Roy drives across the country to a camp in the mountains to meet up with the three men who will assist him in the heist; Louis Mendoza, Red, and Babe. Babe brought along a young woman by the name of Marie to the camp. And there is even an adopted dog, which was played by Bogart's own. The heist goes wrong when they are interrupted by a security guard and the chase is on.

     Cast

Ida Lupino as Marie
Humphrey Bogart as Roy Earle
Alan Curtis as Babe
Arthur Kennedy as Red
Joan Leslie as Velma
Henry Hull as Doc Banton
Henry Travers as Pa
Jerome Cowan as Healy
Minna Gombell as Mrs. Baughmam

Donald MacBride as Big Mac

Directed by

Raoul Walsh

Trivia

The film was remade twice:

 Colorado Territory (1949)

Cast

Joel McCrea

Virginia Mayo

Directed by Raoul Walsh.

I Died a Thousand Times (1955)

Cast

Jack Palance

Shelley Winters

Directed by Stuart Heisler.

The Day After Tomorrow by Robert Heinlein

A Strange Revolt in The World Of the Future!

One by one, the free nations had fallen, until finally America too was under the heel of the invader. Now the only hope resides in a mountain redoubt where six men work in secret on a plan to rock the planet. . . .

 

A top secret research facility in the Colorado Rocky Mountains is the last remaining outpost of the United States Army after its defeat by invaders. The conquerors had absorbed the Soviets Union after being attacked by them and had then gone on to absorb India as well. The invaders are depicted as ruthless and cruel. They crush an abortive rebellion by killing 150,000 American civilians as punishment. Noting that the invaders have allowed the free practice of religion, the Americans set up a church of their own in order to build a resistance movement, the Sixth Column. The laboratory is in turmoil as the novel begins, all but six of the personnel have died suddenly, due to unknown forces released by an experiment operating within the newly discovered magneto/electro-gravitic spectra. The surviving scientists soon learn that they can selectively kill people by releasing the internal pressure of their cell membranes, among other things. Using this discovery they construct a race-selective weapon which will kill only the invaders.

 Printing History

Written by Robert A Heinlein (1907-1988)

Gnome Press

1949

Trivia

Was published under the title Sixth Column, and was based on a story by editor John Campbell and published in serial form from January 1941 thru March 1941, under Heinlein's pen name Anson MacDonald.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Future American society where books are outlawed and firemen burn any that are found.

 

Fahrenheit 451 is divided into three parts: 

The Hearth and the Salamander

The Sieve and the Sand

Burning Bright

Guy Montag is a fireman hired to burn the possessions of those who read outlawed books. One night  he meets his new neighbor, a teenage girl named Clarisse McClellan, while returning from work one night.  Her free-thinking ideals and liberating spirit cause him to question his life and his own perceived happiness. Montag returns home to find that his wife Mildred has overdosed on sleeping pills. She recovers without any recollection of what happened. While at work one day with the other firemen ransacking the book-filled house of an old woman before the inevitable burning, Montag steals a book before any of his coworkers notice. The woman refuses to leave her house and her books, choosing instead to light a match and burn herself alive. Guy returns home jarred by the woman's suicide. Montag is shocked to discover that Clarisse was hit by a speeding car four days ago earlier and her family moved away. As he tries to fall asleep, he senses The Hound, an eight-legged robotic dog-like creature that resides in the firehouse and aids the firemen. He and his wife are perusing stolen books when Guy recognizes a sniffing occurs at their front door. Could it be The Hound? His wife passes it off as a random dog. Montag is ordered to destroy his own house, thinking that his wife and her friends were the ones who reported him.  His wife gets into a taxi, and vanishes down the street. He obeys his chief, destroying the home piece by piece with a flamethrower....... 

Printing History

Written by Ray Bradbury (1920-2012)

The Ballantine Publishing Group

October 1953

 

The Movie

1966

  

Directed by

François Truffaut

Cast

Oskar Werner as Guy Montag
Julie Christie as Linda Montag/Clarisse
Cyril Cusack as Captain
Anton Diffring as Fabian

  

2014 USA Fiction Challenge: District of Columbia

The next stop in the 2014 USA Fiction Challenge is the District of Columbia (Washington D.C.)

Presenting

Murder And the First Lady

by Elliott Roosevelt

 

A young woman who is in the employ of Mrs. Roosevelt's is suspected in the murder of her boyfriend. Mrs. Roosevelt is certain that the young woman, whose name is Pamela, is innocent and with the help of a few officials, sets out to prove it. This is not an easy task, since the murdered boyfriend is the son of a Congressman who doesn't take too kindly to Mrs. Roosevelt's involvement. Especially since her investigations reveal a few not-so-nice details about the young man's personal life and hobbies. The plot involves a jewel theft and false identities,  a few seedy characters from the gambling world. And Mrs. Roosevelt mingles with these people in an effort to get information. In that summer of '39, as her husband chatted with advisors about the inevitability of war, Mrs. Roosevelt prowled the White House halls in search of a killer. Embroiled in a deadly web of suspense and dire intrigue that involved the Mob, J. Edgar Hoover, Scotland Yard ... and even F.D.R. himself!

Printing History
Written by William Harrington (1931-2000) 


Hardcover 
St Martin's Press
ISBN 312 55280
 July 1994

 Avon Books
Softcover 
ISBN 380 69937
September 1992

    

1984 by George Orwell

George Orwell's novel of a totalitarian future society in which a man whose daily work is rewriting history tries to rebel by falling in love.

The story of Winston Smith presents the world in the year 1984 after a global atomic war. The story is his perception of life in Airstrip One (the former United Kingdom), a province of Oceania, one of the world's three superstates. His intellectual rebellion against the Party and illicit romance with Julia, and his consequent imprisonment, interrogation, torture, and re-education by the Thinkpol.

 Printing History

Written by Eric Arthur Blair (1903–1950)

Secker and Wartburg (Harvill Secker)

London

June 1949

The Movie (1984)

Cast

John Hurt as Winston Smith
Richard Burton as O'Brien
Suzanna Hamilton as Julia
Cyril Cusack as Mr. Charrington
Gregor Fisher as Parsons
James Walker as Syme

 

Directed by

Michael Radford

Trivia

By 1989 it had been translated into sixty-five languages, 

more than any other novel in English at the time.

The film is dedicated to Richard Burton's memory, this was his last acting role,

he died in Switzerland two months prior to the British premiere.

The Rangoon Man by Jack Canon

Agent N3 Infiltrates An Arms Dealer's Fortress

And Blasts His Way Out

George Gross Cover

 Killmaster #240

There's enough high caliber hardware stockpiled in monsoon soaked Rangoon to start a war. Or a revolution. And Sidney Chong is holding all the cards. He's blackmailing half of the Burmese government and using an elite society pf martial arts assassins to do his bidding.  Now Nick Carter "Killmaster" has to stop him and time is ticking away. But how could Nick guess that his ace in the hole would be the beautiful and brainy Jane Camway? She has more degrees than a thermometer and is about to give him an education he'll never forget...

Printing History

Written by Jack Canon

Berkley Publishing Group

Jove Books

Published by arrangement with The Conde Nast Publications, Inc.

ISBN 515 09681

August 1988

Murder- Paris Fashion by Carter Brown

Murder- Paris Fashion

Cover by Bernard Blackburn

 Series Character: Johnny Lane

 

Printing History

Written by Alan G Yates (1922-1985)

Novel Series 1954
Second  Collectors' Series Volume 1 #1 (1957)
w/My Mermaid Murmurs Murder

Second  Collectors' Series Volume 2 #7 (1960)

w/The Lady is A Killer (The Lady Is Murder)

Bonus

Undercover Cutie by Marc Brody

So the brunette's diving into blackmail....

Follow her and you will end up deep in murder....

Savagely and suddenly the little man was murdered before Brody could reach him. Murdered because he might have linked the wrong people with secrets of mobsters, rackets, and tremendous undercover manipulations. He might have revealed where big shot hoodlum Phil Candone was hiding from the hearings of a Senate Investigation Committee, and where he was heading. So the story to be scooped was to find Candone. So off to Siam Brody did go with some company.  A senator who had reasons to be nervous. Crooks who would kill at the flip of an eyelid. An undercover cutie who was brunette and gorgeous with a way that helped her learn plenty for profit. A beautiful blond who wasn't only the perfect secretary. And the fabulous Walter Augustus Latimer who took Brody to visit the flower of his heart.....Gadea. "The most popular dame in the joint." It was some trip until Brody found himself tied to a tree with that elephant aiming to ramrod his head against his chest. Why didn't someone remind Brody that elephants never forget.

Printing History

Written by W.H. "Bill" Williams

Horwitz Publications, Inc

Numbered Series #2

January 1958

The Clock Strikes Twelve by Patricia Wentworth

A Miss Silver Mystery

The Paradine family has gathered to celebrate New Year's Eve. When the clock strikes twelve  patriarch  James Paradine is found murdered. Yet, he seemed to invite his demise when he accused a family member of disloyalty. Now, Miss Silver must unravel the mystery of troubled love and sudden death.

Printing History

Written by Dora Amy Elles

copyright 1944

The Incredulity of Father Brown by G.K. Chesterton

The third collection of short stories of G. K. Chesterton's Father Brown series

Contents

The 8 stories in this collection

"The Resurrection of Father Brown"
"The Arrow of Heaven"
"The Oracle of the Dog"
"The Miracle of Moon Crescent"
"The Curse of the Golden Cross"
"The Dagger with Wings"
"The Doom of the Darnaways"
"The Ghost of Gideon Wise"

Printing History

Written by Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936)

copyright 1926

The Man In The Queue by Jospehine Tey

Alan Grant traces the mysterious slaying of a man waiting to see a London musical, 

whose neighbors in line insist they saw nothing.

 Set in London, this classic murder mystery introduces Inspector Alan Grant, who is charged with sorting out not only the identity of a victim, but the logistics of the stabbing itself, which occurred in a dense crowd of theater-goers, none of whom saw anything. There was little physical evidence, little witness evidence, but a careful, methodical investigation began, and in time the dead man was identified, his life examined, and suspects identified.

Printing History

Written by Elizabeth Mackintosh (1896-1952)

copyright 1929

Trivia

The title was originally published as The Killer in the Crowd by Gordon Daviot. Mackintoch also wrote as Gordon Daviot, under which she wrote plays with a historical theme.

Donovan's Reef (1963)

Donovan's Reef

'Guns' Donovan prefers carousing with his pals Doc Dedham and 'Boats' Gilhooley, until Dedham's high-society daughter Amelia shows up in their South Seas paradise.

Starring

John Wayne as Michael Patrick "Guns" Donovan
Elizabeth Allen as Amelia Dedham
Lee Marvin as Thomas Aloysius "Boats" Gilhooley
Jack Warden as Dr. William Dedham
Cesar Romero as Marquis Andre de Lage, the French governor of the island
Dorothy Lamour as Miss Lafleur, Gilhooley's sometime girlfriend
Jacqueline Malouf as Lelani Dedham, Dr. Dedham's eldest daughter, hereditary ruler of the island
Cherylene Lee as Sally Dedham, Dr. Dedham's younger daughter
Jeffrey Byron as Luke Dedham, the doctor's son and youngest child
Marcel Dalio as Father Cluzeot
Mike Mazurki as the Police Constable

  Directed by

John Ford

The Third Man (1949)

The Third Man

Holly Martins (played by Joseph Cotten), is a third-rate American pulp novelist who arrives in postwar Vienna. He has been promised a job by his old friend Harry Lime (played by Orson Welles). Upon his arrival, Martins discovers that Lime has been killed in a traffic accident, and that his funeral is taking place immediately. At the graveside, Martins meets Major Calloway (Trevor Howard) and actress Anna Schmidt (Alida Valli), who is weeping copiously. When Calloway tells Martins that the late Harry Lime was a thief and murderer, the loyal Martins is at first outraged. Gradually, he discovers not only that Calloway was right but also that the man lying in the coffin in the film's early scenes was not Harry Lime at all. And that Lime is still very much alive. He was the mysterious "third man" at the scene of the fatal accident, thus the stage is set for the movie's famous climactic confrontation in the sewers of Vienna. And the even more famous is the final shot, in which Martins pays emotionally for doing "the right thing."

Cast

Joseph Cotten as Holly Martins
Alida Valli as Anna Schmidt
Orson Welles as Harry Lime
Trevor Howard as Major Calloway
Bernard Lee as Sgt. Paine
Wilfrid Hyde-White as Crabbin
Erich Ponto as Dr. Winkel
Ernst Deutsch as 'Baron' Kurtz
Siegfried Breuer as Popescu
Paul Hörbiger as Karl, Harry's Porter

Written by

Graham Green 

Directed by

Carol Reed

Bolivian Heat by Jack Canon

A one Man Strike Force Against a Drug Lord's Army!

George Gross Cover

 Killmaster #239

Drug wars are nasty business, exploding in bloodstorms of death and greed. Now, large shipments of illegal arms are moving into Bolivia in exchange for raw cocaine. And the violence of a savage drug war is about to blast its way out of the cocaine underground. Nick Carter's assignment is to intercept the next shipment, then terminate the mastermind, known only as the Charcas Man. But first Nick has to get by the Charcas' private army and its top assassin..a beautiful woman who enjoys the kill.

Printing History

Written by Jack Canon

Berkley Publishing Group

Jove Books

Published by arrangement with The Conde Nast Publications, Inc.

ISBN 515 09646

July 1988

No Future Fair Lady (Revised) by Carter Brown

She's a fun loving doll but her blind date is murder

Jerry Chase looked her up and down, slowly, thoroughly.

"Chase by name..." 

"Your slip is showing," he said. 

"I didn't know a slip could show in so many places," she replied tartly.

 

Jerry's second slip was to join the staff of SMEAR magazine. His assignment was to prove that eggheads don't make the best lovers. So he took a trip to Happy Honeymoons Incorporated. Jerry knew there was something fishy about the place as soon as he met his first date. She was dead! His second female acquaintance was that way, too!So Jerry had the cops breathing down his neck and the murderer hot on his heels. Maybe one would think the gorgeous dames would compensate for that, but try telling that to his boss Xavier. He didn't mind what Jerry did until he discovered the blackmail racket. Then he didn't even worry when Jerry was locked in a closed car, unconscious, with carbon monoxide streaming into his lungs.

      Printing History

Written by Alan G Yates (1922-1985)

Numbered Series  #59 1958

Reprint By Demand #15 1960

Bonus

Finland
Valpas-Mainos
1964

This title was originally posted on December 12, 2010
No Future Fair Lady 

Hunter and Raven by Eric Sauter

Hunter Goes Underground After A Radical On The Run

And Comes Up With Murder

  Printing History

Written by Eric Sauter (1948- )

Harper Collins

Avon Books

ISBN 380 87684

August 1984